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full screen A baby is being cared for for malnutrition and dehydration in an incubator at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. The picture was taken on March 2. Photo: Mahmoud Issa/TT
At least ten children in Gaza have starved to death, the UN says.
The figure may be higher.
– They should not have died, says Petter Gustafsson, press secretary at the UN children’s fund Unicef.
Two hospitals in northern Gaza have registered a total of ten young children who died of starvation, reports the UN’s own publication UN News.
– There are probably more children fighting for their lives in Gaza’s few remaining hospitals, and probably even more children in northern Gaza who are not receiving care at all, says Adele Khodr, regional director of the UN children’s fund Unicef, in a statement.
Four of the children were registered on Friday at the Kamal Adwan Hospital. Six others were registered on Wednesday, both at Kamal Adwan and at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
The UN children’s fund Unicef states that mass starvation is imminent in northern Gaza when Israel’s war against Hamas, with a tightened blockade as a result, has been going on for almost five months.
Only a few miles away
At the same time, food, markets and shops are only a few miles away on the other side of the border, in Israel. Emergency aid is being delivered, but only to southern Gaza.
– At the border with Rafah, about four miles from northern Gaza, Unicef and other organizations have trucks full of emergency aid such as nutritional supplements, high-energy biscuits, nut cream and clean water that can save the lives of thousands of children. But we cannot and must not come up with the help on the scale that is needed, says Petter Gustafsson, press secretary at Unicef Sweden.
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full screen Three-year-old Mohammad has his arm measured as part of a screening to check for malnutrition, at a field hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza. Photo: © Unicef/Uni519934/Eyad El Baba
On Friday, Unicef, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) managed to deliver supplies to al-Shifa hospital.
At the same hospital, over 700 people have received treatment after being injured in Thursday’s incident at an emergency aid convoy. Over 100 people were killed in the riot.
“A drop in the ocean”
The emergency delivery, which included fuel, infant formula and child vaccines, was the first in over a week from the UN that has managed to reach northern Gaza.
– The supplies can save hundreds of children suffering from malnutrition. At the same time, the delivery is a drop in the ocean of what is needed to avoid a famine disaster.
In January, every sixth child under the age of 2 in northern Gaza was acutely malnourished.
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full screenLeen, 2 years old, is acutely malnourished according to the screening done on her arm. Before the war, the girl was given medication and physiotherapy to keep her weight down, but the family became refugees during the war and Leen’s health has significantly deteriorated. She now weighs only 7 kilograms, and has been taken to al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza for specialist care. The girl is now on the road to recovery. The picture was taken by the Unicef team during the weekend. Photo: © Unicef/Uni519947/ Eyad El Baba
The situation more desperate
Since then, the situation has become even more desperate, Unicef states.
– Unicef has long warned that children will starve to death in northern Gaza if we are not allowed to come in with more emergency aid. Now we are there, says Petter Gustafsson.
To avoid a famine catastrophe, emergency aid on a huge scale must be allowed to enter Gaza, the UN pleads. But right now the opposite is happening.
“Unacceptable”
During February, the number of trucks with emergency aid entering Gaza decreased by 50 percent compared to January.
– It is unacceptable that children are starving to death when food and other emergency aid that can save their lives is so close. We need to get more emergency aid in. For the sake of the children, we must have a humanitarian ceasefire.
FACT Background
More than four months have passed since October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel in what is being called the worst massacre of Jews in modern times.
Over 1,100 people, mainly Israelis, were killed and 240 people were kidnapped. Over 130 of them are still believed to be with Hamas in Gaza.
The military invasion that Israel launched shortly afterwards against the Gaza Strip – with the aim of exterminating Hamas and bringing back the hostages – has been very bloody. By Palestinians it is called a new Nakba, catastrophe, just like the expulsion of Palestinians that took place in 1948 when the state of Israel was established.
According to the Hamas-controlled health department in Gaza, over 30,000 Palestinians are estimated to have been killed by Israeli attacks, the majority of them women and children. Over 70,000 have been injured.
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